Online Reporter
Robson Sharuko, H-Metro Editor
MICHAEL Nees has won just FIVE games in the 22 years he has been involved in World Cup/Afcon qualifiers since his first game on the continent in March 2003.
Two of his victories came against the same opponents, Namibia, in the 2025 Afcon qualifiers, which the Warriors won 1-0 and 3-1.
Ironically, one of his victories also came against Zimbabwe when Seychelles brewed up a shocker and stunned the Warriors 2-1 in a 2004 Afcon qualifier on June 7, 2003.
The late Adam scored for the Warriors in a 1-2 defeat on the Indian Ocean island.
The Warriors qualified for their maiden appearance at the Afcon finals after that campaign while Nees and his Seychelles finished second from the bottom of the table.
Eritrea finished bottom of the table with just one win in their six group games and that lone victory came against Nees’ Seychelles when the East Africans won 1-0 in Asmara on June 21, 2003.
It’s just one of four Afcon qualifying matches poor Eritrea have won since the turn of the millennium. Eritrea are the only country, out of the 211 national teams under Fifa’s umbrella, who are not ranked on the world rankings because they have not played enough matches to justify a ranking.
They have been withdrawing from major tournaments.
Nees’ other wins in Afcon/World Cup qualifiers came against Liberia (4-0) and Equatorial Guinea (2-0) when he was in charge of Rwanda.
Nees’ lost his first game when Seychelles went down 1-3 to the Warriors at the National Sports Stadium on March 30, 2003. The Ndlovu brothers — Peter and Adam — scored all the Warriors goals with the Flying Elephant on target twice.
The Germany coach also lost his last game when the Warriors went down 0-1 to Rwanda at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Nees has featured in 22 Afcon/World Cup battles since arriving on the continent and his teams — Seychelles, Rwanda and Zimbabwe — have won just five of those matches, drawn SIX and lost ELEVEN games.
In terms of statistics, it means that Nees has lost HALF of the games that he has taken charge of either in World Cup or Afcon qualifiers and won less than half of the other 11 games, which he did not lose.
He has a consistent track record — he usually wins, at most, just TWO games and that was the case when he took charge of Rwanda and that is the case right now as he guides the Warriors.
He won just ONE game when he was in charge of Seychelles.
His overall record shows that he has picked just 21 points out of a possible 66 points since he started his coaching adventure in the jungles of African football.
That represents a very poor return with Nees taking home just 31.8 percent of the points, which have been on offer to the three nations that he has guided.
In other words, it means that a staggering 68,2 percent of the points, which were at stake, from the time he embarked on his journey on the continent, have been lost along the way.
He has taken just 11 of the 30 points, which were on offer since he became Zimbabwe coach with SIX of those points, which stands for more than the number of points won, coming from just one team – Namibia.
Nees’ teams have generally struggled to score and his Warriors have only scored more than one goal in just two of their 10 matches — against Namibia (3-1) and Benin (2-2).
When he was in charge of Rwanda and Seychelles, the two teams also struggled to score goals and scored more than one goal in just four of their 12 matches.
Nees told a media conference in South Africa that the Warriors have a history of failure when it comes to the World Cup qualifiers.
He is correct.
The foolishness of his statement though is that he forgot we hired him to improve our poor record, especially in the World Cup qualifiers, and so far he has been a complete failure.
